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This show tells the story of partners Freddie Thornhill (Sir Ian McKellen) and Stuart Bixby (Sir Derek Jacobi), who have lived together in a small central London flat for nearly fifty years. Constantly picking each other apart and holding on to petty slights for decades, Freddie and Stuart are always at each other's throats, cracking snide remarks aimed at the other's age, appearance, and flaws. However, underneath their vicious, co-dependent fighting, they have a deep love for one another. Freddie and Stuart are often joined by feisty best friend Violet Crosby (Frances de la Tour) and Ash Weston (Iwan Rheon), their young, upstairs neighbor.
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Episode 1
Sun, Aug 30, 201523 mins
Violet confides in Freddie and Stuart that she believes her husband, Jasper, has abandoned her, she not having seen him in a few weeks since they returned from their honeymoon. What's worse is that Violet's somewhat estranged sister, Lillian Haverfield-Wickham, about who Violet has previously not told anyone and who Violet has not seen in years, is coming for a visit. As Lillian has always gloated that she married into money and thus has had a wonderful life, Violet, to even the balance of power in their relationship, told her that Jasper is also from money, and that they live in a lavish flat with servants. To help Violet on both fronts, Freddie and Stuart devise a plan, which also requires Penelope's help, to impersonate Jasper and the servants, using their own much nicer and well-appointed flat as Violet and Jasper's. Playing against type as Freddie treats Stuart as a servant in their day-to-day lives, flamboyant Stuart takes the role of butch straight Jasper, while domineering Freddie takes the role of Freddie the butler. Pulling off the scheme gets even more complicated when Ash drops by unexpectedly with his new serious girlfriend, Jess - not "Jessica" - as Ash is trying to impress her with the people closest to him in his life, they who he described to her as "authentic".





